Buttonhole



July 13, 1937. R. A. COLLlNS ET AL BUTTONHOLE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed July 18, 1935 zzr July 13, 1937.

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Patented July 13, 1937 unirso smrss PATENT OFFICE BUTTONHOLE Ralph Amos Collins and Frank Mondello, Brocklyn, N. Y., assigncrs to The Reece Button Hole Machine Company, Boston, Mass, a corporation of Maine Original application July 18, 1985, Serial No. 32,018. Divided and this application January 17, 1936, Serial No. 59,565 a 3 Claims.

tice virtually impossible to cover and conceal this contrasting slit edge completely and permanently, resulting in a buttonhole of an unsightly appearancewhich is highly objectionable in high grade work. This difficulty is well recognized in the art, and various expedients. have been resorted to in the attempt to overcome it, but none of these have provided a wholly satisfactory solution of the problem. In another application, Serial No. 32,018, filed July 18, 1935, of which this case is a division, are disclosed a method and apparatus whereby this, problem is solved in a simple and effective way by causing the buttonhole stitches to bind the edges of one of the exterior or finish fabric plies over the slit edge of the intermediate or interlining ply, thereby completely and permanently concealing the latter. The present invention relates to the buttonhole so formed.

The invention will best be understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, as well as of certain mechanism and operations suitable for its formation all as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, these, however, having been chosen for purposes of exemplification merely, as it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the invention, as defined by the claims hereunto appended, may be otherwise embodied, and its embodiments otherwise produced, without departure from the spirit and scope thereof.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a buttonhole sewing machine suitable for the production of a buttonhole embodying the invention.

Figs. 2 and 3 are elevations of the looper mechanism of said machine, as viewed from points at right angles to each other, respectively.

Fig. 4 is a plan View of a portion of the front end of the machine.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged plan view of certain of the instrumentalities adjacent the stitching point, showing the work in place and a button-- hole partly completed therein. 7

Fig. 6 is a similar view with the work omitted.

Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail sectional View taken substantially on the line l--'l, Fig. 5.

Fig. 8' is asimilar View showing the completed work.

Fig. 9 is a detail perspective view of the throat plate.

While a buttonhole embodying the invention may be produced in a wide variety of ways, for convenience its production by means of a buttonhole sewing machine of the general type shown and described in the U. S. Kiewicz Patent No. 1,558,182, October 20, 1925, is illustrated and described herein. Such a machine comprises a bed 85 provided with suitable work clamps It for holding the work for the action of the cutting and sewing instrumentalities, and a sewing head I! in which are carried sewing instrumentalities comprising a reciprocating needle bar [8 carrying a needle l9 above the bed plate and suitable looper or under-thread mechanism 20 below the bed plate. The needle bar and looper mechanism are actuated by any suitable means (not shown in detail but well known in the art) from a driving shaft 2! journalled in the head. The looper mechanism herein shown is substantially identical with that shown and described in the Kiewicz Patent above referred to and requires no: description in detail.

In machines of this general type the work clamping means it and the stitch-forming instrumentalities l9 and 2!] are given relative feeding movements to position the buttonhole stitches about the buttonhole slit, which movements may be imparted to either or both. of said elements. In the present machine the work clamps I6 and bed plate I5 are stationary, and the feeding movements imparted to the sewing head ll by mechanismwell known in the art and not shown herein. Also, in machines of this type it is customary to give the stitch-forming instrumentalities a semi-rotation in sewing around the eye end of the buttonhole and a similar rotation in the opposite direction upon the completion of the work in order to restore them to their initial positions. To this end, said instrumentalities are carried by turrets 22 and 23 rotatably mounted in the head I! and operated by suitable mechanism likewise well known in the art and not shown in detail herein.

Machines of this type are further usually provided with means for cutting the-work to form the buttonhole slit therein. A conventional form formation of a buttonhole'embodying the present invention the slit is out before stitching.

The turret 23 carries a throat plate 26 having a sewing opening 2i through which theneedle operates and also, if desired, having a guide opening 28 by which, as the stitching proceeds, a cord 29 is guided along the edges of the buttonhole slit into a suitable position to be secured in place by the buttonhole stitches 35, as shown in Fig. 8;

Such throat plates are usual in machines of this.

type in order to support the work for the stitching instrumentalities immediately adjacent the stitching point, but for the purpose of forming a buttonhole embodying the present invention the throat plate 26 is modified to enable it to perform an additional function. As shown most clearly in Figs. 6, 7 and 9, said throat plate is cut away or depressed, as shown at 35, to leave a projecting or elevated portion 32 which terminates in a curved edge 33 defined by a wall or offset shoulder 34 connecting the portions 3i and 82. The shoulder 34 and edge 33 extend from the leading edge 35 of the throat plate (that is to say, the

' edge which first engages the work during the relative feeding movement) to the needle opening 21, being, generally speaking, disposed at an inclination from the former to the latter toward the median line of the throat plate,

In Fig. 7 is shown a piece of work W comprising three superposed plies, namely, two exterior plies of finish fabric a, b and an interposed ply c of interlining or stiffening material and through all of which plies has been cut a buttonhole slit s. At the stitching point the raised portion 32 of the throat plate supports the work and presses against the contiguous ply b at the side of the buttonhole slit where the stitching is taking place, while the material at the opposite side of the slit is'left firmly supported by the cut-away or depressed portion Sl. As shown in Fig. 5 the feed movement .of the stitching instrumentalities is in the direction of the arrow A, so that the-relative movement of the work with respect to the of such cutting mechanism is indicated in Fig. 1

stitching mechanism is in the direction of the arrow B, and it will be seen that the inclination of the edge 33 toward the slit 5 is in the latter direction. Consequently, as the feeding and stitching operations progress, the raised portion 32, shoulder 3 1, and edge 33 act in the nature of a plow which first engages the contiguous exterior ply b at a point relatively remote from the slit s and thereafter, as the feeding proceeds, crowds or forces said exterior ply laterally toward the center line of saidslit, and thereby causes a marginal portion thereof adjacent the slit to be projected beyond the corresponding edges of the other plies, and particularly beyond the edge of the adjacent intermediate ply c, as shown at d in Fig. '7. The projection of this marginal or edge portion becomes greatest immediately adjacent the stitching point, so that the buttonhole stitches 3B, which are thereupon formed about the slit edges of the several plies, cause this projected portion of the ply b to be folded and bound over the slit edge e of the adjacent or intermediate ply 0, thereby effectually concealing and finishing said edge, as shown in Fig. 8.

What we claim is: r

1. A fabric assembly comprising a plurality of superposed plies having a buttonhole slit cut therethrough and buttonhole stitches extending through said plies and over the edges of the slit, one of said plies having a marginal portion bound by said stitches over the slit edge of the adjacent ply- 2. A fabric assembly comprising two exterior plies and an intermediate ply, said assembly hava buttonhole slit out through all of said plies,

and buttonhole stitches extending through all of said plies and over the edges of the slit, one of said exterior plies having a marginal portion bound by said stitches over the slit edge of the intermediate ply.

V 3. A fabric assembly comprising a plurality of superposed plies having a buttonhole slitcut therethrough, one of said plieshaving adjacent the slit a projected marginal portion folded over the slit edge of the adjacent ply, and buttonhole stitches extending through saidplies and over said marginal portion and serving to bind the latter in place.

RALPH AMOS COLLINS. FRANK MONDELLO. 

